Tagged: cameron smith

When Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville announced a few years ago it planned to open a prototype 13,700-SF Express store in Gentry, Mayor Kevin Johnston said concerned citizens feared that the coming of the retail giant would crush competitive commerce in the city. Johnston said there were town meetings with small-business leaders to discuss the situation.

Cameron Smith of Cameron Smith Associates of Rogers and Karen Fetzer of the Rotary Club of Little Rock won executive of the year awards at Thursday's 27th annual Arkansas Business of the Year Awards at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

Cameron Smith, whose efforts to place women on corporate boards of directors was the subject of a front-page story last week, says it’s not always easy persuading denizens of New York and Silicon Valley to move to Vendorville, the Bentonville-Rogers-Springdale-Fayetteville metroplex that’s home to 1,390 suppliers to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Diversity on corporate boards has been an issue for years. Most companies recognize that having directors from varied backgrounds isn’t simply a theoretical matter of equity; it’s a matter of performance. Cameron Smith wants to use the contacts built up over 20 years of helping to put women on corporate boards. And women — particularly in Arkansas — could use his help.